Richest 10 percent Brazilians possess 43 percent of national wealth

Inequality continues to grow in Brazil, with the richest 10 percent of the population amassing 43.1 percent of the country's total wealth, according to a study published on Wednesday by statistics agency IBGE.

LatAm Brazil

The poorest 10 percent altogether, according to IBGE, were in possession of only 0.8 percent of the national income. The income of the poorest 30 percent of the population decreased from 2017 to 2018, while that of the richest 30 percent rose.

Brazil's Gini index applied to per capital household income, which has been rising continuously since 2016, reached 0.545 in 2018. The index applied to the average pay received for all work rose to 0.509. The Gini index goes from zero to one, and the higher the figure is, the more unequal in income a country is.

In 2018, the richest 1 percent of the population in Brazil had an average income of 27,744 reals (6,685 U.S. dollars). That represents over 27 times the country's minimum wage, and is an average income 33.8 times that of the poorer 50 percent of the population, which has an average income of 820 reals or 197 U.S. dollars.

The country also has significant regional differences. While the southern and midwestern region both have Gini indexes below 0.5, which are 0.448 and 0.486, respectively, compared with 0.520 for the northeastern region. ■